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#tolerance

Evil preaches tolerance until it is dominant, then it tries to silence good.

We need to remember that tolerance is not a Christian virtue. Charity, justice, mercy, prudence, honesty — these are Christian virtues. And obviously, in a diverse community, tolerance is an important working principle. But it’s never an end itself. In fact, tolerating grave evil within a society is itself a form of serious evil. Likewise, democratic pluralism does not mean that Catholics should be quiet in public about serious moral issues because of some misguided sense of good manners. A healthy democracy requires vigorous moral debate to survive. Real pluralism demands that people of strong beliefs will advance their convictions in the public square — peacefully, legally and respectfully, but energetically and without embarrassment. Anything less is bad citizenship and a form of theft from the public conversation.

Archbishop Charles J. Chaput

America’s Inchoate and Disinte­grating Soul

Speaking out in terrible taste now seems like the good old days to us. Tennessee had recently outlawed trans-surgery on minors, and so the hot takes after the Nashville shootings were running along the lines of “straight Tennessee had it coming.” This is not politics anymore—this is something else entirely.

That Acrid Taste of Damnation by Douglas Wilson

Let’s go.

The idea is to believe in oneself, to reach deep down within one’s own heart, and there to discover a treasury of infinite riches. So goes the lie. But what we have discovered instead is that we have become a vacuous people with hollow souls, empty minds, and grasping hands.

Vacuous. Emptied of or lacking content. A commenter on YouTube put it this way, “this is angry Doug.” Yes, yes it is.

If you are reading this, and you are one of those who has been surgically torn apart by such lies, and you are still miserable, that misery has to do with your relationship to the God you are still rejecting. Your misery has nothing to do with the fact that some people in the red states disapprove of what you have done. They cut off your breasts in San Francisco, and you are not spiritually empty because somebody in Tulsa disapproves. You feel spiritually empty because you are spiritually empty, and Oklahoma has little or nothing to do with it. Not only so, but the surgeon who did this awful thing to you is spiritually empty as well, and the medical profession certified him is as hollow as a jug. Looking to them for answers is like drinking from the dry and broken cisterns of ancient Israel, the ones that were dry in Jeremiah’s day.

Let me speak clearly.

I spent my week in worship to temper my words. To temper my hands. To pull my punches. I would guess that Pastor Doug did the same. Tongues should not be unrestrained. But restrained tongues, something necessary for every Christian man and woman— by which I am including everyone as there are only men and women—, still must speak truth in the darkness, still must call evil evil, and still must call for the hearts of man to turn from darkness and repent.

This week we saw an unrepentant, monster of a woman walk into a school seeking to kill children. And she did just that. Three kids the age of my daughter and three adults my parent’s age slaughtered by a vile snake. And all week I saw the media raise her up. Glorify her. Why? Because she was a victim too. Her parents didn’t “love” her the way she needed, the church rejected her, Tennessee had this coming by passing laws that prevented sexual dance shows by cross-dressing freaks around children. I have read think-piece after think-piece about her. I have read the tweets from lunatic, loathsome, lousy Leftists saying that she was executed by the police. And then there are the protests. Extremists stormed Texas, Oklahoma, Florida, Nashville, Kentucky, and Montana’s capitols over the last couple of days, attacking police and holding “die-ins,” a practice by which the protester lies on the ground and acts as if they are dead. Either no self-awareness or a complete callousness to the reality that one of their tribe murdered children literally days before in the name of their cause.

These people are evil, wretched fools.

It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were cast into the sea than that he should cause one of these little ones to sin.

Luke 17:2

Let me speak clearly. I support the laws passed in Tennessee. And the message this week has been loud and clear. If you support these laws, don’t be surprised when your children are murdered. But this is the logical conclusion of years of rhetoric that includes calling those that disagree with you “fascists”, saying that we want to “send you to a concentration camp”, that we want you “dead” and “murdered”. This is what comes when you ask questions on TikTok like “when are we going to start treating the fascists like the world did in the 1940s?” You convince a group of people that they are victims, that they are being attacked, that “words are violence,” that “silence is violence,” and that “disagreement denies your existence” and then tell them that those oppressing them are Christians and that we need to kill the fascists and it’s no wonder that eventually someone takes your no-one-could-actually-take-this-bullshit-seriously bullshit seriously and decides that killing children is the way to affect change.

And then these extremists, who charge people to kill in their name, claim she is a victim too.

See, last week I would have said this was partisan saber rattling intended to cause discord. But then I read on CNN that Democratic Rep. Jared Moskowitz said we are focusing on “[banning] books touching on gender issues” but “dead kids can’t read.” I spent a month, as things escalated in my personal life, writing about comfort in persecution, not striking back in persecution, and taming the lions. I think God needed my head down, buried in worship, and Scripture when this persecution came to fruition.

Vengence is not yours, Christian. Protect your children. Preach the Gospel and fight for laws that keep our children safe. But do not do it out of vengeance. Be angry. Angry at evil. Angry at those that would see children die. Angry at those that would see children sin. But then pray for resolution, for resolve, for repentance, and for restoration.

As they started the pandemic with singing, they are coming for your children. They are actively posting this.

So as to not get called out for blaming the actions of a few on an entire group, this is not all of the LGBT people. Some want to live their lives and leave our kids alone. Most are likely abhorred at what transpired this week. These extremists don’t and aren’t. And unfortunately, the message of the extremists is being parroted by the media and the Democrat party. Comply or die.

America is going down a dark path right now. Pray for its soul. Pray for America to repent. Pray for mercy for a bit longer.

Senseless

Beyond that unfolding storyline was the urgent sense that some motive must explain this targeted attack on a school, including young children. […] Interestingly, CNN’s Laura Coates seemed to defend the search for a motive by arguing (quite correctly) that a motive is not justification for the crime.

[…]

Christians know that the hunger for a motive is explained by the fact that God made us in His image as moral creatures, and we cannot keep ourselves from the hunger to know some motive behind such a heinous crime. At the same time, we can learn of some motive only to realize that there is no merely rational answer to the darkness of the human heart. There is no way for us to know the depth of an individual’s depravity once a heart is committed to sin. Audrey Hale left behind a map of The Covenant School. Perhaps her dark manifesto will offer some map of her murderous heart. Even that will not answer all our questions.

[…]

But Christians know that the real urgency is six grieving families in Nashville. Christian moms and dads, with brothers and sisters, are living a pain no one else would dare to understand. In Nashville, there is a wounded community and a congregation that has experienced unspeakable loss. A Presbyterian pastor with his wife and their children are experiencing the death of their little daughter and beloved sister.

The world’s trouble erupts in Nashville by R. Albert Mohler Jr.

I am numb right now. I said somewhere last week that I felt like I was trying to stop a train. God, I pray this was enough to wake the world up that we have to stop the hateful, demonizing, us-vs.-them rhetoric. The children that died on Monday were my daughter’s age. I find some peace in that they are in Heaven now, away from the pain of this world, but I mourn all the more for these families and all the time they lost here. I pray they stay the course and follow them into the hereafter. A young sister cried out, “I don’t want to be an only child,” and my heart broke.

As I said on Tuesday, I could write many words. But words are seriously falling short right now. I trip and I just want to rage. There will be time for that, there will. But right now we mourn.

Jesus did tell His disciples that those who follow him would face trouble in this world. Big trouble. Heartbreaking trouble. Mind-bending trouble. But we must remember that Jesus went on to say: “But take heart; I have overcome the world.” Sometimes, remembering that promise is all that will get us through.

All My Words Fall Short

All my words fall short. I got nothing new.

We sang those words Sunday. I wanted to sing along but I was nearly in tears.

And then Monday came. As a Christian, as a father of an almost nine-year-old daughter, and as a man who knows the rhetoric of the extremist Left intimately, yesterday was a logical burst of a dam from a lot of build-up and I am in mourning for and with my Christian family in Nashville.

And these words ring louder and clearer. All my words fall short. I got nothing new.

I could rage right now. I could write many words. Many are words that I will agree with tomorrow and still next week and the week after. But you don’t want to hear my tone today.

No, instead I will point you to the last three Culture Saturday posts. Three weeks ago I touched on finding comfort when you find yourself among lions. Two weeks ago I addressed the anvil not striking back when hit by the hammer of persecution. And a couple days ago I wrote about taming the lions and bringing them before the throne of Christ. I think I covered most of what should be covered in a good Christian response to persecution in those three posts. I don’t think I need more words.

Let me just say this, Christian. Protect your family. In this country, you still have that right. And knowing that the school was picked over another Christian school because of the lack of security, please talk with your child’s school and your church about security. The deranged individual targeted this school because of their values and faith. It also appears that she might have targeted one of the children specifically. This was a deranged, ideologically charged individual looking to kill Christian children. You are not safe. So be ready to defend yourself.

You are in a public place, praying silently. No one else around. The police approach you and ask the nature of your prayer. They then arrest you because you are not allowed to pray in this public space. Clearly this is a Muslim country where Shariah Law is enforced, right?

No, it is Britain.

Watch the video. I’m not exaggerating this. This isn’t a case of a Christian “praying” but also screaming at people or blocking sidewalks.

Christian, the old howl of “Christians to the Lions” is returning to London, just as Spurgeon feared. Not long before it is here in the States.

When I was in college, I was escorted out of school for wearing a shirt that said, “Homosexuality is sin. Jesus redeems.” I was forced into meeting with the school counselor or risk being expelled.

A few years back, I shared a post about Chick-fil-A on Facebook. Throughout the wee hours of the night, my phone dinged as “friends” called me every name in the book. One even inferred that I’d cause my future child to commit suicide if they were gay. And that wasn’t the first time someone has used that accusation against me. It wasn’t the last time either.

In November, I voted for Evan McMullin. I couldn’t vote for a man I wouldn’t allow my wife and daughter. And I couldn’t vote for a woman that supported abortion past 40 weeks and supported using taxpayer money to do so. Trump won. Since then, I have supported and defended many of his policies. Many of my “friends” consider me a Nazi because of it.

And this is all par for the course when dealing with the Left. Name-calling, silencing with force, and threats against one’s family are normal. But I’m an intolerant bigot.

So it comes as no surprise that Chadwick Moore, a gay New Yorker, experienced the absolute vitriol from people that once considered him a friend when he came out as a conservative.

Most disconcertingly, it wasn’t just strangers voicing radical discontent. Personal friends of mine — men in their 60s who had been my longtime mentors — were coming at me. They wrote on Facebook that the story was “irresponsible” and “dangerous.” A dozen or so people unfriended me. A petition was circulated online, condemning the magazine and my article. All I had done was write a balanced story on an outspoken Trump supporter for a liberal, gay magazine, and now I was being attacked. I felt alienated and frightened.

New York Post

He started to realize what those of us on the Right know as normal.

And I began to realize that maybe my opinions just didn’t fit in with the liberal status quo, which seems to mean that you must absolutely hate Trump, his supporters and everything they believe. If you dare not to protest or boycott Trump, you are a traitor.

If you dare to question liberal stances or make an effort toward understanding why conservatives think the way they do, you are a traitor.

It can seem like liberals are actually against free speech if it fails to conform with the way they think. And I don’t want to be a part of that club anymore.

I have tried over the months since the election to cross the canyon between my Leftist friends and me. Name-calling is the frequent result. They seem to have zero desire to understand the half of Americans that voted for Trump. To try to understand their fellow men and women. They prefer to scream racist, misogynist, bigot, and Nazi.

Republicans have, admittedly, struggled to capture the vote of the youth. But I have been seeing a lot more Conservatism coming from my friends in the last few months. People emboldened to stand against the hatred and bigotry of the Left.

If you want to lose your demographic, bullying people seems to be a good starting place.

Are we limiting free speech on college campuses? Are we raising thin-skinned, fools that cannot hear opposing ideas? I’m sharing a John Stossel video, because even the Left recognizes this.

I’ve seen Dave Rubin a number of times on Louder With Crowder. Good man. A lot of good points here too. What used to be “progressive” no longer is.

Instead of learning a single lesson from Donald Trump’s upset victory in November, the American left has strapped on vagina hats and marched in the street, calling Trump supporters Nazis and ridiculing people of faith. The media has been positively enamored with it all and continues to refuse even to learn how to relate to the people who voted for Trump.

The Resurgence

I have a friend on Facebook. He, his friends, and I had an interesting exchange last week. He claimed to not understand how people could vote for Trump. I explained it and he still didn’t understand it. They could have voted third-party— like I did— he claimed. He could not see voting Trump, in any case, better than voting not Trump.

You have to live for the next four years with those that voted for Trump. Just like they have to live with you. Calling your opponents Nazis and insulting their religion is not how you heal America. It’s not how you end divisiveness. How about, instead of stonewalling half of America and saying you cannot understand them while you have your fingers in your ears, you shut up and try.

The looming Trump presidency is their legacy, launched largely via backlash against their pseudo-religion of political correctness. Not to mention all their dumb colleagues that have wreaked havoc in our inner cities, presided over the systemic collapse of the nuclear family, and turned our schools into self-esteem parlors for the criminally mind-numbed.

For when you mistake, misconstrue, or malign your so-called countrymen with condescending labels of “ill-equipped” and “systematic racism,” simply because of the color of their skin, the only system that needs changing is yours.

Along with your diaper.

Conservative Review

I’ve continued to see my liberal Facebook friends call all those in flyover country racist, bigoted, misogynists. Maybe it didn’t sting as much when I lived within an hour of Chicago. While still a conservative, maybe they weren’t talking about me. But the condescending elite has even forced me to get behind much of Trump’s rhetoric. I’m sick of it.

When we, erroneously, stereotype the urbanites, we get reamed by the mainstream media, but shouting racist, bigot, and worse today is praised and honored.

A bully is a bully. No matter if it’s President-elect Trump or Derrick Rollins Jr.